We asked our regular contributors through e-mail, What free software is so good you can’t believe it’s available for free? We got many interesting responses. Here are some of them. We have just copied and pasted their responses, not editing them in any way.
1. Google maps on a cell phone. Navigation systems used to cost hundreds of dollars not too long ago.
– digitron
2. VLC needs more love than WinRAR.
– mo0_mo0
3. The Windows Snipping tool literally changed my life and it was there the whole time!
– dlabelle83
4. Space Engine is free (for now). I’d say a program that simulates the known universe (and beyond!) for free on your computer is a good deal.
– Tonin_Nebulus
5. Wikipedia.
It’s actually free in all senses of the word. If you want to nitpick that it’s a website and not a software, well it’s a software too. You can download the Wikimedia software, set it up with no hassle, download all of Wikipedia and set it up in your instance of Wikimedia. So now you have your very own Wikipedia.
– railmaniac
6. I don’t know how many people here can relate but MuseScore is fantastic for anyone who wants to put their musical ideas onto paper. It’s free and has all the functionality you could ever want from music notation software.
– SodiumGeek
7. Audacity: Audio editing software.
Irfanview: Great for basic editing of images. This is my default image viewer.
And then there are ones a lot of people know about like VLC, Winamp, ImgBurn, Winrar, z-7, CPUID and Bleachbit.
– Livingingrey
8. Handbrake. Free, very powerful video converter.
– wacopeach
9. Zotero. For those of you who do academic writing, this reference manager is 100x better and 1000x freer than EndNote.
– itsnotwilldo
10. Desmos.com
It’s an online graphing calculator and it’s so much better than TI-84.
– StetsonTuba8
Also SketchUp (formerly Google Sketchup). It’s a great 3D modeling software, especially if you don’t want (or can’t afford) to buy expensive CAD programs.
formerly SketchUp
I’d also add Lightshot here simply for how practical and simple it makes the process of taking screencaps or printscreens on your computer.
what about blender? Its a 3D moddeling Package that has pretty much all the features a 3D artist needs. It’s Super powerfull and Open Source, gets constant updates and is highly customizeable.
Godot as an alternative to Unity.
Easier to learn.
The scripting language is based on Python.
Everyone’s talking about VLC but a better alternative for me remain mpv. If you’re interested then here’s a link: mpv.io
I also forgot but there’s LaTeX for word processing! There’s tons of community-made templates for free and the render is beautiful and simple too!
Linux. Nuff said.